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Oct 28, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 28, 2013 at 9:54 AM

Released Oct. 22: “The Way Way Back.” Nat Faxon and Jim Rash are two comic TV actors who have had extraordinary success working behind the big screen, first with their screenplay to the George Clooney vehicle “The Descendants” (with director Alexander Payne), and now with this growing-up-painfully-one-summer heart-warmer, which is their debut as writer-directors. ...

Howard Karren

Released Oct. 22: “The Way Way Back.” Nat Faxon and Jim Rash are two comic TV actors who have had extraordinary success working behind the big screen, first with their screenplay to the George Clooney vehicle “The Descendants” (with director Alexander Payne), and now with this growing-up-painfully-one-summer heart-warmer, which is their debut as writer-directors. Young Duncan (Liam James) spends the summer in question with his divorced doormat of a mom (Toni Collette) and her sadistic jerk of a boyfriend (Steve Carell) on the Massachusetts shore. He finds safe haven in a nearby amusement park, Water Wizz, where he gets surrogate fathering from a wisecracking rascal named Owen (Sam Rockwell). The movie is brimming with charming pranks and dysfunctional emotions, but however true its intentions, the moral lessons within are heavily overdetermined and somewhat simplistic. That said, the filmmakers build their scenes (both comic and hurtful) like total pros, with charismatic performances all around, especially from newcomer James, the grizzled vet Rockwell, and the always wonderful Allison Janney, who plays a lush loudmouth of a neighbor. Also this week: “Before Midnight,” the third (and most accomplished) Richard Linklater talk-fest to track the maturing relationship of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy); “The Internship,” with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as overgrown interns at Google; “Only God Forgives,” another crime thriller from director Nicolas Winding Refn and star Ryan Gosling, the pair behind “Drive”; “Paradise: Faith,” Ulrich Seidl’s stark and dark comic fable about a devout Austrian woman married to a Muslim; “The Conjuring,” with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as paranormal investigators; “I Give It a Year,” a romantic comedy about newlyweds being tempted; “As Cool as I Am,” a coming-of-age tale with Claire Danes and James Marsden as mom and dad; “Shepard & Dark,” a documentary on the literary friendship of Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark; and “Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story,” all about the renegade children’s illustrator.

Coming Oct. 29: “Out in the Dark.” Much like Eytan Fox’s “The Bubble,” this gay romantic thriller from Israel has a “Romeo & Juliet” theme — two young lovers, one an Israeli Jew and the other a Palestinian Arab, have to deal with the bigotry and life-and-death threats on both sides of an endless feud. “Out in the Dark,” directed and co-written by Michael Mayer, is slicker and less tragic than either Fox’s movie or Shakespeare’s play; the lovers, Roy (Michael Aloni), a young lawyer from a well-off family, and Nimr (Nicholas Jacob), a closeted West Bank Palestinian studying in Tel Aviv, are played by TV-handsome actors and the obstacles they face are typical of thriller plots. Which is not to say that their story is predictable — the suspense in the film is intense, and Mayer directs with precision and taste. Likewise, the corruption and chauvinism of both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict are depicted with a rigorous fairness: Nimr’s fear of being exposed as gay, for example, is exploited by both the Israeli security services and radical Palestinian groups in a similarly merciless, dehumanizing way. Roy, though he lives in the relative tolerance and plenty of Israeli society, is as trapped as Nimr is by family, class and nationality. “Out in the Dark” is an unusual gay romance in that it’s truly accessible to both gay and straight audiences, and to pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian sympathizers alike. Available from Breaking Glass Pictures. Also this week: “Monsters University,” a Pixar animated prequel to “Monsters, Inc.” that explores Mike and Sully’s college years; “Byzantium,” Neil Jordan’s horror flick, set on the British coast; “R.I.P.D.,” an undead police comedy, with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges; “Tabu,” in which a Portuguese woman retraces her past in Africa; and “Beauty & the Devil,” the 1950 René Clair classic, an updated Faust story, now on DVD and Blu-ray via Cohen Media.

Coming Nov. 5: “Lovelace.” The opening night selection of last June’s Provincetown International Film Festival comes to video. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s biopic of Linda Lovelace — the notorious star of “Deep Throat,” the 1972 landmark porn film that made hundreds of millions of dollars and broke through legal barriers and social taboos — is about the real woman behind the infamous persona. Amanda Seyfried stars as Linda (née Boreman), Peter Sarsgaard plays her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, who essentially pimped her into a porn career, and Sharon Stone plays her dour, unyielding mother. The film follows her life from her early adulthood (during which she was seriously injured in a car accident) to her post-porn family life and death at 53 (from complications of yet another car accident). But Epstein and Friedman and screenwriter Andy Bellin focus on her descent into levels of marital and sex-industry hell and her ultimate escape and anti-porn activism, as might be expected, since Lovelace’s journey is compelling as a melodramatic exposé and as an allegory of America’s transformation during the sexual revolution of the ’70s. All this steamy sensationalism notwithstanding, the filmmakers, who made the classic documentaries “The Times of Harvey Milk” and “The Celluloid Closet,” are restrained and sensitive throughout, and as Lovelace, Seyfried is outstanding, making the transition from wide-eyed naïf to toughened survivor understandable and vivid. Also this week: “Passion,” a new Brian De Palma murder mystery, with Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace; “As I Lay Dying,” James Franco’s adaptation of the Faulkner novel; “Girl Most Likely,” a comedy about a failed New York playwright with Kristen Wiig, Annette Bening, Matt Dillon, and Daniel Criss; “Parkland,” about the day JFK was assassinated, featuring Billy Bob Thornton as a federal agent and Zac Efron as a Dallas doctor; “Grown Ups 2,” more juvenile antics from Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock and David Spade; “White House Down,” in which Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx fight a paramilitary threat; and two documentaries, “Pablo,” about a now-forgotten artist whom Stanley Kubrick once claimed had ushered in the look of the ’60s, and “The Green Wave,” about the 2010 Iranian elections and subsequent uprising.

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